of interest to the denomination. (CONAMAD in Portuguese)—founded by pastor Paulo Leivas Macalão. This ministry was founded on November 15, 1958. Madureira was part of CGADB until an extraordinary assembly where the ministers of Madureira withdraw from the convention. By this time Madureira had more ministers under a single leadership. Since the other brothers tried to move Madureira away from a protagonist role in the leadership of the convention, the ministers left to create another convention. Foreign work The has always sent missionaries abroad, starting in 1913 when a returning Portuguese immigrant was sent to Portugal. Today, there are Brazilian missionaries in Latin America and Portuguese-speaking Africa. There also are among Brazilian immigrant communities in North America, Japan, and Western Europe, but they do not typically have a relationship with local World Assemblies of God Fellowship-affiliated national denominations. In the United States there exists , mostly on the east coast; some are affiliated with the Brazilian District of the Assemblies of God, but the majority of the Brazilian churches are either independent or linked to their back in Brazil. Organization The have a non-territorial episcopal polity (called ) where each is a directed by a mother church under a pastor-president (also called bishop or apostle in various ) with affiliated congregations and preaching points. The mother church receives tithes and manages the funds of the affiliated local churches, as well as assigning pastors to local congregations. Pastoral leadership has a strong influence on the decision-making process, and the members only rubber stamp the 's decisions. As the structure overlaps many territorial boundaries, there usually is not much organizational collaboration among . Each operates almost entirely independently, and ends up becoming an independent denomination unto itself. Among the major are the Assembly of God Bethlehem Ministry, which has about 2,200 churches concentrated in the south-central and headquartered in the Belenzinho neighborhood of São Paulo. In 2008, was chaired by Pastor José Wellington Bezerra da Costa, who succeeded Pastor Cicero Canuto de Lima, who also chaired the CGADB. Since the 1980s, for administrative reasons, notably after the death of Pastor Paul Leiva Macalão and his wife, Zelia, a missionary, the has undergone several divisions that gave rise to various conventions and ministries with autonomous administration in various regions of the country. The most significant of the independent ministries are the Ministry of Madureira, whose church has existed since the 1930s, founded by